


Fix us. Fix them. Stop this war.

by aceofhearts88



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Civil War Fix-It, Everybody loves Clint, as well as Clint/Natasha/Laura, hinted at Clint/Bucky/Laura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 17:16:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6248650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofhearts88/pseuds/aceofhearts88
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their personal opinion on the Accords? That's not something Clint had bothered with, had known right from the start that they wouldn't see eye to eye on this decision. They had come from too different pasts to agree on what was right when it came to being held in check by government officials.</p><p>Their professional opinion on the Accords? No, that was something much more delicate. They were both Avengers, founding ones even, and when they couldn't stop the rift, they damn well swore to do anything necessary to stop it from ruining them.</p><p>Natasha chose Tony. </p><p>And Clint went with Steve.</p><p>They watched their friends rip each other's hearts apart and tore a friendship to pieces. They got hurt, they saw each other get hurt. Natasha saw Rhodey nearly die. Clint saw Bucky fall apart.</p><p>And then they had enough. This war needed to stop.</p><p>And maybe they were the only ones who could.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jaydeemz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaydeemz/gifts).



He took extra precaution, walked around the block twice and even then slipped into the hotel right next to the one he was supposed to be slipping into, choosing to make his way up to the rooftop unseen before jumping over to the other building. Pulling off his gear in a supply closet in the service staff staircase, he put on the simple cotton pants and dark blue hoodie he had borrowed for the day, pushing his gear and the bow into the bag before slipping into the main staircase.

Room 327.

Because frankly, no one did nostalgia like Natasha Romanov.

Midnight in Chicago. Downtown. Hotel Chicago Downtown. 

The first time he had let her come under his skin, the first time the bed under them couldn't have been any smaller.

He smiled as he stepped into the long narrow corridor, eyes fixed on the door at the end of it, keycard falling out of his sleeve and between his fingers with an easy twist of his wrist. The door fell open with a small click and he walked inside, pushing the door shut before flicking on the lights.

Natasha was on him not a second later.

Throwing arms around his neck and legs around his waist and making him stumble for a second under her weight before finding his balance again, one arm coming around her waist, the other coming up to rest a hand on the back of her head. Pressing and pulling her closer, closer. No inch left between them, chests pressed against each other, her face pushed into the crook of his neck.

Holding onto each other for minutes, breathing in each other, her nose nuzzling against his neck, him turning his face into her red hair. It seemed like an eternity until Natasha pulled back again and set her feet back on the ground, standing in front of him and reaching up to cup his smiling weary face, smiling just as tiredly up at him, "You came." She whispered and he pulled his lips into a smirk, felt his heart skipping in that familiar rhythm, felt it settle back into what was right.

No more worry, no more questions. No more lying awake at night wondering.

She was right here.

"You called." Clint said and reached out to push a strand of hair behind her ear, she had let it grown up even more since he had last seen her, and he was surprised by how much it meant to him. Just like it was back then, and maybe it wasn't only her that liked to drown in nostalgia once in a while.

Natasha smiled brighter, only for him, his mind supplied him, only ever for him, and walked back to the bed where she must have waited for him. She sat down on the edge and Clint dropped his bag by the bathroom door and stretched his arms over his head, getting rid of the last paranoid tension.  
"Did you come alone?" She wanted to know and Clint dropped down on the chair across from her.

"To this hotel? Yeah. To Chicago? No. I can't take those chances anymore, there is too much to lose and too many fronts after us. We need to have each other's back right now." He explained and though she crinkled her nose, Natasha looked relieved that he wasn't out there alone. And oh how the sides had turned, him on the run from the government while she was the one people didn't trust but needed to bring the vigilantes in. It almost made him laugh.

"You're playing babysitter." She deadpanned and he snorted, thinking back to annoyed blue eyes basically kicking him out of the safehouse to get some hours of alone time.  
"He needs someone to be there for him, someone who is not afraid of who he is now. Steve can't give that to him, and Wilson is too busy making sure Steve doesn't pitch himself off the next roof to be of any help to him. He trusts me, and I came to trust him." He made clear and despite the guarded worry in her eyes, Natasha ducked her head down with a small knowing smile.

He knew she wasn't afraid of Barnes. She had gone against men more dangerous than him and come out victorious. She was afraid of the memories he brought up. And even more of the things he might know about her.

"Picking up strays again, Hawkeye. What does the wife say about that?" She asked quietly and looked back up when he snorted, leaning back and stretching out his legs.  
"Thinks I have good taste. He wants what he want, you know, that's why I had no hesitation in letting him come with me." He began and Natasha flung herself sideways on the bed, kicking off her heels.

"Aside from not trusting Rogers around him? Or Wanda and that bug man?" She teased, fluttering her eyes at him and the possessive fatherly instincts of keeping his strays all accounted for and safe and happy. Clint had long ago stopped getting upset over it.  
"I don't know Scott Lang, aside from getting tremendously more annoyed every day over his Captain America hero worship, it makes Bucky nervous. And he is scared of Wanda, which I can understand, I don't share the sentiment but I can understand." He felt himself melting into the chair as he talked, as always completely relaxing around Natasha, the only person he trusted more than the woman he had married, more than himself, "He wants the fighting to end, just as much as us. He is tired, he is exhausted and he can't pull through this any longer and that is a feeling I can very much relate to. But Steve..."

"It's gotten really bad, huh?" Natasha guessed and Clint nodded, pushing himself out of the chair and falling down upon the bed next to her, letting her turn into his side and resting an arm around his waist.  
"He isn't himself anymore. He is blinded and broken, he can't think straight anymore. He thinks he is doing the right thing, doing right by Bucky by fighting this stupid war." Clint grumbled and turned on his side to come face to face with warm green eyes, Natasha slipped a leg between his.

"We have to stop this." She took the words right out of his mouth, "Before they hurt even more people, before they destroy each other even more."  
"How is Stark doing?" Clint wanted to know and Natasha grimaced, reaching out to trace the shell of his ear and further down a path to his collarbone.

"Out of control. I've never seen him spiral this much before, he is crushed, barely holding on. Spends all his free time sitting by Rhodes's side, watching over him, completely unmoving. T'Challa took over dealing with Ross and the Council, keeps the officials from crawling up the tower, he hasn't given me a reason to not trust him yet. I have...I have a good feeling with him, Clint, he wants this settled, he wants Tony and Steve at one table, talking about this." She pointed out and he nodded, could see the reasoning.

"The rest?" 

"Vision is trying his best to understand, to help. What happened...with Wanda and you, it really shook him hard, and he feels ashamed over it. Right now, he is the only one Tony is letting close, god only knows why." Natasha grumbled, clearly frustrated with it, Clint leaned in and pressed a kiss to her head, he knew and had seen how much Stark meant to her, how much she had always been itching to reach out for him and take care of him after New York.

"We can fix this." He said then and green eyes snapped up to stare at him, "How?" Natasha asked, "How can we still fix this, Clint? I want to stop this just as badly as you do, but Tony is beyond all logical sense, he is blaming everything on Steve."  
"When in truth we all know Crossbones is behind the attack." Clint took over for her and Natasha nodded, picking the thought up again, she went on, "And Ross is orchestrating the whole show from the end of the strings. I am trying to get my hands on something that incriminates him, because as much as I want to kill him for doing this us, we need to do this the right way. Clear Steve's name, clear Wanda, Sam and yours. Let Lang fall under the radar."

"Give Bucky the immunity he deserves." Clint threw in afterwards and Natasha nodded once more, curling even closer still, "We can do this, Tasha. If we fix Steve and Tony and get something on Ross, they can do the rest. They will do the rest. If we push past the pain in their hearts and let them see each other without the red of betrayal, they will listen to us and they will listen to each other."  
"And when they know the truth..." She started to grin and he followed right along, speaking her words with the foreboding it deserved.

"May god brace the world for what's to come. Stark and Rogers will take us back from the edge of chaos, if we take them back to each other." He told her and rolled her upon her back, settling himself upon her thighs.  
"You got a plan, don't you?" Natasha asked, arching her back into his wandering hands, Clint grinned down at her.  
"You still got those red handcuffs?" He asked right back and Natasha threw her head back and laughed, and Clint felt his face breaking into a bright smile.

Hope was something so powerful.

Something incredibly powerful, he noted as Natasha was arching and gasping beneath him twenty minutes later, crying out his name and begging for release while he touched her everywhere but where she wanted him the most anytime his thrusts sped up.

When she fell over the edge later and took him right along, crashing down into his arms and becoming motionless for a long time, Clint held her close and thought ahead. Ahead towards a time where this would not be something hidden away in some off the radar hotel room, but maybe even something in the open with their friends and family.

Their friends, their family.

A united group of Avengers.


	2. Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First step in ending the war: Find out who is friend and who is foe and unite your allies

"Please don't scare the puppy." Clint begged as he trecked behind Natasha up to the sixth floor of the apartment building in one of the not so beautiful parts of Chicago, "It's such a cute one and he looks at me like I'm some kind of hero when I make a beautiful shot." He whined, grunting when the bag on his shoulder dared to slip down again, for someone on a one day 'business' trip, Natasha had way too many clothes packed.

"As if your ego still needs that." She drawled and stopped in front of the door to the apartment he had bought ages ago, but before she could have placed the key in the lock, the door swung open and swung the dufflebag in his hand forward when he saw the rifle. Natasha dropped down and pulled the feet out from the masked man, jumping up just in time to send her fist into the face of another approaching man. 

Clint slammed one man against the banister in the staircase, took another one out with a knife to the back and then dashed past Natasha sliding her thighs around a third attacker's neck while choking another one with a knife jammed in his throat. There was no point in playing it coy here, just like him she had immediately seen that this was no government team.

Mercenaries.

And judging by the state of the art equipment and gear, Crossbones' men.

Clint raced down the corridor into the loft, eyes flying everywhere at once it felt, trying to find something in the completely wrecked place. He didn't yell, even though his heart was racing in his chest over all potential things that could have already gone wrong, he had thought this place to be safe.

Rounding the corner of the bedroom, he came up short for a second and then rushed over to where Bucky was lying unconscious on the ground, in the middle of the completely wrecked contents of Clint's old closet. Still clutching a knife in his hand, tranquilizer dart in his neck.

A dart that a low crouched man in a way too familiar black suit was carefully pulling out of his neck in the moment that Clint dropped to his knees next to Bucky's face. Around them, seven more men laid dead. And only only one of them was not marred by claws.  
"I'm not going to complain, but what in the name of god are you doing here?" Clint demanded to know, in the distance the sound of struggling ceased, Natasha was done playing and then a door got shut and quick feet came closer while he leaned down and checked Bucky over.

"I got attacked, outside of the tower yesterday, followed the trail of men up here. Someone must have blabbed or seen you enter Chicago." T'Challa explained in that smooth accented voice of his, getting to his feet and stepping so casually over two dead bodies that Clint nearly rolled his eyes. Natasha appeared at his side in the next blink of an eye, not a hair out of place and her face glowing in that deeply satisfied I-just-kicked-ass-so-good expression that Clint's knees went weak for.

At least any other time when he wasn't kneeling next to a slowly blinking again Bucky, he took the knife and pushed it away, cupped Bucky's face with both hands and then waited. Meanwhile T'Challa got talking again, "Followed the chatter here, got the drop of them just as they shot him down." Beneath Clint's hand Bucky slowly got to his senses again, hands flying up to clutch at Clint's wrist as he drowsily made out his face.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Clint could see Natasha snatching up the dart from T'Challa's fingers and frowning down at it, "Wherever they got this from, it has to be someone inside Hydra, commen tranquilizers don't work on Rogers, shouldn't work on him either." She said quietly, watching him with something that came close to fondness when he leaned further down to shush Bucky as the other man groaned in obvious confusion.

"The government has them as well." Clint grumbled darkly, pulling Bucky upright and against one knee, one hand placed comfortingly against the small of his back, the other one offered and then quickly taken by still clumsy fingers, tips pressing against his pulse. Natasha blinked at him and Clint was surprised that she didn't know, T'Challa pulled off his mask, "Believe me, Tasha, this is not the first time they got a drop on us. Three weeks ago, it was Steve, and it sure as hell weren't Hydra agents in those jackets. Hey, Buck, you with me?"

"Yeah." Bucky agreed and dragged a hand down his face, before looking over to T'Challa, "Thanks for saving my ass, man," T'Challa nodded at him, "So you two got a plan how to fix things now?" Natasha grinned in a response to his question and Clint felt Bucky tense just a tiny bit, progress.  
"Yup." She said and popped the p so much that she even whipped forward on her toes a bit, "And I already got an idea how to get Tony to listen to me." She brought up and then rammed the dart into the side of T'Challa's neck.

Clint and Bucky stared as T'Challa cursed and went to one knee before wrenching the dart out again, glaring at Natasha out of dark narrowed eyes.  
"What the hell, Romanov!" He demanded an explanation and Natasha smiled sweetly, taking the dart back again with gentle fingers and patting T'Challa's head with her other hand.  
"I'll tell you on the flight back to New York. You brought your plane, didn't you?" She quipped happily and Clint raised an eyebrow at her when T'Challa huffed and got back to his feet, holding out a hand to Bucky that the other man took after just a small moment of hesitation, "Hey, Clint, you got a minute before we go?"

"Don't hurt the kitty, puppy." Clint grinned at Bucky who glowered right back and then moved to grab his bag from under the bed to pack up, "And you don't provoke him! I know he's shiny and growly, but control your urges." Clint threw towards T'Challa who sent a look to Natasha that she completely smiled over before forcefully pulling Clint over to the kitchen.

He whined when he saw the blood stains on the carpet, Natasha shrugged and held up the tranquilizer dart, the tip now covered in Bucky's and T'Challa's blood.  
"I tell Tony T'Challa and I got jumped by Crossbones's men, he finds out what this is and if I am not right then I'll make something up to get him to talk to Steve." Natasha began and Clint gestured for her to go on, "But if I am right, then we might have a problem big enough to break through Tony's skull."

"You think Ross is behind this?" He took the thought right out of her head, dropping his voice to keep the other two men from hearing it, Natasha nodded grimly, "Fuck. Tash, are you ready for that fallout with Stark? If you're right and Ross is pulling the strings on Crossbones to take us down, then Stark let himself be controlled by someone again, thinking he was doing the right thing."

"Figure out a way with Barnes on how to get Steve to listen and let me worry about Tony. We got one chance at this, Clint, one chance to make it right and stop this war." Natasha told him and Clint smiled, brought one hand up to cup the back of her head and leaned down to kiss her, once, twice, "Let's make it count, sweetheart."


	3. Pushing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Step two: emotional manipulation and poked curiosity

There was a lot of screaming and yelling and physical force involved to get Steve to listen to them once Bucky and Clint had returned to Brooklyn. They started out alone with him, but then quickly roped Sam and Wanda into it as well and Scott made a comment or two as well, and Steve began to cave under the collected frustration of a team who was just so tired of fighting.

And then Bucky of all people delivered the killing blow.

"Do you think I want to hide for the rest of my life? Always on the run, always hiding and fighting, always paranoid and scared that someone might find me? Or you? Or any of us?" He was snarling and none of them really made a move when he slammed Steve against the wall and pinned him there with a strategically placed arm, "I didn't want this, Steve, you decided this for me. You gave me no choice but to come along to make sure you wouldn't get hurt." And that had Steve wince hard enough to make even Clint feel a little sorry, "You brought me here, so maybe it's time you fucking stood up for what you promised me, Rogers. You told me I would have peace, well look around you, do you see it? Because I sure as hell don't!"

And that emotional onslaught of feelings Clint had been warned of but not prepared for and he slipped out of the room while Steve was still staring wide eyed at a ranting Bucky. Making his way up to the rooftop of the old apartment complex they had been staying since two weeks ago. It was easy to see Manhattan, full of light in the middle of the night as he sat down on the edge, legs and feet hanging over the edge.

Stark Tower stuck out.

Just like its owner.

A beacon of light and power in New York City.

And he wondered how Natasha was doing, if she had it any easier.

Their plan would work, they would fix this. 

After a few minutes alone, footsteps approached him and Sam sat down next to him, dropped his face into his hands and let out a sigh.  
"Please tell me this will end. Please tell me that this is worth it going behind Steve's back." Sam pleaded with him and Clint placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing.  
"It will, and it is. Steve and Tony, we're going to fix them and then they'll fi this war. We just have to guilt Steve into stop being stubborn for one day, if Bucky thinks this is the way to do it, let him. Kinda have the feeling this was a long way coming anyway. We're gonna get through this, Sam. If we all stick together and give Steve and Tony no chance to avoid listening to each other, then this war will end."

\--

Across the river, Natasha and T'Challa had gotten back to Stark Tower a few hours earlier and Natasha's suspicion about the power behind the tranquilizer in the dart got even deeper when T'Challa went to his knees with a grunt halfway through the short flight from Chicago to New York. And thanks to Friday's warning, it was Tony and Vision who met them on the flight deck of the tower when they touched down.

"Should I ask?" Tony snapped when he took her place at T'Challa's left side who gritted his teeth and let Tony support him down the ramp. Natasha suspected the prince would not accompany her to the next ballet night now, but what was a little grudge between friends and allies if not stuff for future story tellings.  
"You might, I'll tell you anyway." Natasha answered Tony and held up the little plastic back with the dart as they made their treck inside, "Got jumped by a group of Crossbones's men."

"You got jumped?"

"Bad days happen to anyone." She deadpanned over the doubt in Tony's face, "They shot T'Challa before I got to take them down." She grinned and dark eyes glowered at her when no one was watching him. She was so not going to get that invitation to the palace ball it seemed. What a pity.  
"Can you analyze this? Took him down in like seconds." She explained, dangling the bag in front of Tony's face for a moment until his curiosity burned stronger than his annoyance and he snatched it away from her, letting T'Challa stumble over to the couch on his own.

"Seconds?" Tony wondered out loud and frowned at the dart, "How do Crossbones's men get their hands on such potent stuff?"  
"That's what I'd like to know as well." Natasha smiled and Tony took off towards the elevator without another look for any of them, she was just relieved to see him focused on anything else but Rhodey and his broken heart for once.

"Can you at least get me something to drink?" T'Challa asked once they were alone with Vision, Natasha rolled her eyes and went over to the bar in the Penthouse.  
"You want some milk, kitty?" She laughed and and then ducked without looking when T'Challa pitched a pillow in her direction.  
"It's funny coming from your little archer, from you it's just an insult." He pointed out and Natasha groaned, pulling a beer from the fridge before walking back to the couches.

"Why does everyone always love Clint on first side? It's like a curse." Natasha grumbled and handed the bottle to T'Challa who smirked up at her.  
"He is adorable, crazy and reckless, and did I mention adorable?" He challenged her and Natasha snorted, turning on the spot and flipping her hair over one shoulder.  
"Sip on your beer, kitty-cat, I'm gonna visit Rhodes while we wait for Tony to finish his analysis. Catch Vision up, why don't cha?" She smiled all fluttering eyelashes and pouty lips but T'Challa merely deadpanned back at her, tough nut that one.

The medical floor was silent, staff working in peace and calm and not throwing more than a short look to her as Natasha walked down the corridor, some of the nurses threw her a short smile, but that was all. No one stopped her, no one approached her, just what she needed to get her head sorted out.

Rhodey was awake when she knocked on the door to his room, turning slightly smiling eyes on her as she walked inside and closed the door behind herself.  
"Hey." She greeted him quietly and pulled up the chair, "You feeling okay?" She asked and got a thumbs up, like all the other times she had visited him since he had woken up. Despite all serious injuries you could see how he got better day by day, Tony wasn't sparing any expenses to bring in the best doctors.

"You got Tony out?" Rhodey whispered and Natasha nodded, leaning forward to squeeze his non-bandaged hand once.  
"He is analyzing something down in the labs. If I am right, we...we might have a bigger problem on our hands but it will stop this war...or better say focus it on something else." She answered him and Rhodey grimaced weakly.  
"Your theory with Ross. You met with Barton?" He guessed correctly and Natasha leaned forward, rested her elbows on the edge of the bed and smiled.

"We'll fix this, Rhodes. If we all stick together and give Steve and Tony no chance to avoid listening to each other, then this war will end."


	4. Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes three steps.

It took a few days.

They chose Camp Lehigh, or better say what was left of it, for sentimental value or for the simply conclusion that no one would fucking expect them there. Natasha and T'Challa brought Tony. Clint and Bucky dragged Steve.

Tony came on his own free will, because Natasha's suspicion had run true, and no one and certainly none of them could even slightly understand the burning flash of betrayal and guilt that must have run through Tony upon realizing that someone had played him again. Pulled his strings in all directions he would have never wanted to turn, just because he believed in something.

Just because he wanted to make the world a better and safer place and couldn't get there all on his own.

Steve was a harder wheel to roll into motion, way more stubborn and hard-headed than Tony Stark could ever be and that wasn't a persona characteristic that Clint would admire on anyone. He refused entirely to even think about the idea of talking with Tony, so Bucky – Clint got a whole new appreciation for the jerk Bucky Barnes must have once been – Bucky faked a nightmare.

Pretty easy these days, considering that he slept in Clint's room and Clint's bed and Clint was so done with Steve's hurt and hardheaded coldness that pokerfaces were pulled off with ease. Sam found a reason to keep Wanda, Scott and himself behind and so they managed to get Steve into a car and driving up to Camp Lehigh to investigate the place for whatever Bucky was pretending to be looking for.

Tony himself, not Natasha, Tony had texted Clint where to meet them, one of the few not destroyed barracks on the edge of the camp.

"That is not where the base was, the crater is over there, Buck..." Steve argued when Clint and Bucky turned to walk right by the fully destroyed bunker entrance. They exchanged a look and then both reached out, Clint clipped the shield off of Steve's back while Bucky grabbed his arm and started to pull. Steve frowned at them but for once followed.

\--

'Two minutes. Be careful, he is in a mood.'  
'Good, I'm gonna turn it towards Ross.'

\--

The door fell shut. Bucky moved into place. And Clint switched on the lights.

Revealing Natasha and T'Challa standing with her hands clasped behind their backs at the other end of the one room building, beds pushed to the sides, leaving much space for the single table and the two chairs placed right in the middle between both sides.

The table behind which Tony sat, looking way less wild and out of control than the last time Clint had seen him. No more monkey suit, Led Zeppelin shirt, black jeans. A tablet in the middle of the table. No sign of the suit anywhere on him, not even his funky little watch, just as talked about.

Clint had taken the shield, had taken the Captain America out of Rogers.

Natasha had taken the suit's case, had taken the Iron Man out of Tony Stark.

Or at least as much as that was ever possible.

Steve froze and tensed from head to toes, his eyes narrowed at the three people in his view so fast that Clint took a careful step closer to him, ready to intervene if Steve was more lost than they had feared.  
"What is this?" He snarled, blue eyes flashing dangerously in Tony's direction, but instead of rising to the bait, Tony simply held his gaze and kicked out the chair across from him.

"Why don't you take a seat, Steve?" Gone was the heat, gone was the ever lasting anger and the bone deep hiss of betrayal. Tony sounded tired, but determined to see this through and then something happened that Clint hadn't expected and judging by the way Natasha's left pinky twitched, she hadn't either. Tony and Steve watched each other in silence for a moment and then Tony leaned forward and said, "Please."

"Give me one good reason why I should stay." Steve bit back icy cold, but Tony's face showed absolutely no reaction, instead it was Bucky who snapped.  
"Sit your ass down or I'm gonna make you. I'm done." He yelled and then turned his eyes towards the man standing on the other side of the room from him, "T'Challa, why don't we take a walk. I think Clint and Natasha are better suited for this conversation. Thank you for the tools, Stark, they worked." Bucky continued and then ignored how Steve whirled around and stared at him. Tony saluted sloppily as T'Challa walked by him.

T'Challa slipped out first, Bucky made a step towards Clint and then quickly dipped down for a kiss, Clint pressed the shield in his hands and then Bucky left as well.

"Well, look at that. The origin crew back together, anyone wanna call Brucie-bear and Thunderhead?" Clint asked and flopped himself down on one of the old dusty beds, "I'm actually curious on what they would think about this bullshit."  
"God, I missed you, Barton." Tony chuckled and Clint sent him a happy grin, crossing his arms behind his head.

"I'm everyone's adorable little darling, apparently even the badass prince of Wakanda likes me." Clint drawled and Tony rolled his eyes, Natasha have a little snort and then walked over to sit down on a bed across from Clint, so that the table was set between them.

"What the hell is going on here?" It blurted out of Steve in an angry scream not two seconds later and all three of them turned their eyes on him, flushed red and hands balled into fists.  
"Steve, please just sit down and I will explain everything to you. Please. If what I tell you, doesn't convince you, I promise you, I will never bother you again. Fifteen minutes of sitting with me at one table, please." Tony spoke so calm and careful that even Steve had to sense that something was off.

And then slowly, he unclenched his fists, set one foot in front of the other until he was standing next to the unoccupied chair. He rolled his shoulders once last time, unclenched his tense jaw and then sat down, turning to face Tony.

Clint threw a look over to Natasha.

Step 1.

\--

Tony explained, and with every word over Ross's manipulative games and higher motives, more and more tension drained from Steve's body. Clint was almost able to pinpoint the moment an angry super-soldier with full intentions to take his vengeance to the last resort turned back into a guilt ridden Steve Rogers.

Who – just like Tony two days ago – was now faced with the truth of his questions and the true master who had pulled his strings to his own song, solely for his own goals. Clint was so much looking forward to shooting an arrow or two through at least one of General Ross' body parts.

By the time the fifteen minutes had run past and Steve was actually leaning closer towards Tony on the table as the other man scrolled through the incriminating list of evidence against Ross, Natasha walked over to Clint and curled up on her side next to him. He pushed an arm around her middle and together they watched how the apology festival started.

And then went on for twenty five minutes.

And would have probably gone even longer if Clint and Natasha hadn't tenderly turned their attention back to the situation with Ross.

Then the plan got hatched, turned three times more vicious and vengeful than Clint had expected but was secretly very very glad about. Steve and Tony got so into it that they didn't even seem to realize there were still other people in the room with them, switched to sitting right next to each other, quietly talking while hunched over the tablet.

It might have been awkward if Clint and Natasha hadn't been so busy grinning and glowing like kids on christmas morning. The combined anger of Steve and Tony focused on a single person, that was a massacre just of their liking.

They got up and over to the table when Tony and Steve both snapped their fingers without looking away from the plans on the tablet, time to get some serious thinking done.

Step 2.

\--

When Tony asked after another half an hour of talking and explaining if he could get some minutes alone with Steve and Steve didn't look like he had anything against it – on the contrary Clint thought as he got to his feet, Steve very much looked like he desperately needed it – Natasha and Clint left them alone.

And the last thing Clint saw before he closed the door was Steve kneeling down in front of Tony still sitting on the chair and dropping his chin upon his own chest as Tony slipped down on his knees as well, pulling up a hand to push Steve's face up again.

What happened then staid between them, for Clint clicked the door shut and turned to find Natasha in the nightly darkness of the destroyed camp. He found her walking towards the crater and more importantly walking towards the person with the dark hair moving softly in the breeze, vibranium shield at his feet, looking down at the crater that the missile had left of the bunker entrance.

When he reached them, Natasha was standing next to Bucky, both of them looking down into the black hole of the entrance, but Natasha didn't speak up until Clint had stopped right behind them.  
"Do you wanna go down?" She asked, glancing up at Bucky once, but he shook his head.  
"No. There are no answers for me down there, no memories, there is nothing but ghosts below us now. And I've had enough of ghosts for the rest of my life."

"We all do." Clint agreed and slipped a hand into Bucky's right one before offering Natasha one as well, she reached for him and held on, "Enough of strings, enough of puppet masters and secrets."  
Silence reigned for a while between them as they stood in the silence of the mostly dark former army camp. Clint could sense that Natasha's and Bucky's thoughts were far enough, and he was itching to ask what was going on in their heads but he couldn't bring themselves to ruin the moment.

Something was happening. Something was shifting. It was in the air, it was in their blood.

"So what's going to happen now?" T'Challa spoke up after a few minutes from where he was sitting on a rocky ledge to their right, sharpening his claws. And though Natasha opened her mouth to answer him, it was another voice that spoke first.

"We move on." Tony said from behind them and they all turned around, T'Challa got to his feet, looking down at Steve and Tony walking towards them. Steve's arm was around Tony's shoulder and they both looked a little red eyed, but their backs were straight and strong, their shoulders ready to carry the weight of what was to come, "We look forward and move on. We learn from what is now behind us and use it to make right what had been done wrong."

"We'll take Ross and Crossbones down." Steve took over flawlessly, "It won't be easy, won't be done over night, but we're a team and he won't get in between us again."

Step 3.

Clint pushed an arm around Natasha's shoulders when she leaned against him and smiled when Bucky dropped his chin upon his shoulder, all of them watching Steve and Tony glance at each other.

"Well then." Tony grinned, "Let's get the gang together and get going."


	5. Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When it's all said and done, you have time to look around yourself again.

Clint groaned when Lila's bony knees hit him right in the crotch in her sugar highed attempt to scramble off of him and into the waiting arms of Pepper who flung her upon her hip and carried her right over to the bar counter for even more ice cream. He hoped she was very much aware who would get the lucky task of getting her to sleep tonight, it surely wouldn't be him.

Natasha slid into Lila's abandoned place on his lap where he was sitting on the couch in the Penthouse in Stark Tower with total ease, hanging a bottle of beer to him and leaning back against his chest with her own glass of bubbly champagner. 

It wasn't a victory party, Tony and Steve had both forbidden them from calling it that, there were so many things still undecided and all of them were invited to hour long sittings with the senate and the Pentagon and there were trials coming up and all things Clint was so not looking forward to. Hence why he had roped and maybe even blackmailed Tony into pleading a little party "hey we all are alive" party out of Steve and Pepper.

And here they were. 

All together again for the first time without any looming battles or missions.

Just family.

Sam and Maria were laughing with Rhodey on the couch across from them, where Pepper joined them with a brightly grinning Lila not five minutes later. Bucky and Laura were talking with Bruce by the bar, with her leaning back against his chest in a gesture quite similar to Natasha and him right now.

Cooper and Harley were chasing Wanda and Vision around the room and then pouted spectacularly whenever one of them just floated out of reach. T'Challa, sitting in another corner with Nick, was at the moment balancing a stomping Nate on his legs.

"Have you seen Tony and Steve in the last minutes?" Natasha asked him after emptying her glass and Clint had to shake his head.  
"Nope, but wouldn't surprise me if they just slipped away to get some minutes alone. They've been busy all week, barely an hour where no camera was on at least one of them." He replied and nuzzled into her neck.

"Do you wanna get out of here, too? For a couple of private minutes?" Natasha chuckled and turned her face to the side, Clint threw a look over her shoulder to the bar where he caught Bucky's eyes. A hand signed 'go', and Clint decided to let Laura and him deal with the crazed up kids for a little bit, pushing Natasha off of himself, he got to his feet. Grabbing her hands, he pulled her towards the flight deck, grinning just as much as she did.

Outside, there was a slight breeze but none of them cared when Clint gently pushed Natasha against the wall of the tower in a dark corner and crashed his lips to her. Her hands busy getting to work on opening the buttons on his shirt while he just pushed up her dress and slipped a hand between them.

They were alive and alright.

Their friends and family were alive and happy.

The war was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading, I hope you liked it.

**Author's Note:**

> Liked it?  
> I'm still on a trauma healing act after that trailer ruined me. And while my beta is going over the next chapter for my big fic, I got a little break to work on some small things.  
> I hope it didn't suck too bad.


End file.
